Field Guide · First Edition · 2026
Clearanceto Wealth
How to break into defense contracting, earn a security clearance, and build real wealth in Tech. Starting from wherever you are standing right now.
68 pp / 16 ch
How to break into defense contracting, earn a security clearance, and build real wealth in Tech. Starting from wherever you are standing right now.
I worked retail for eleven dollars an hour. I was not lazy and I was not stupid. I simply had no idea that there was an entire industry paying six figures to people with one certification and a background check, because nobody in my life knew it either.
The average cleared technology professional in the United States earns $126,125. Roughly double the national median. Overseas, the same work regularly clears $200,000 with housing, food, and transportation paid for and most of the federal tax removed.
That is not a pitch. It is published compensation data, and it is cited in the guide so you can check it yourself.
Here is one offer taken all the way to the bottom line. A systems role in South Korea, single filer, domiciled in a state with no income tax.
Both columns land on the same number. A $160,000 offer overseas leaves you
exactly what a $272,000 salary leaves you at home.
Figures use 2026 federal brackets, the $132,900 foreign earned income exclusion,
and a maxed traditional 401k. Illustrative, and fully shown in the guide.
Three sections. Getting in, where the money is, and how to keep it. No filler, no motivational padding, and nothing else to buy at the end.
I would rather lose the sale than waste your money.
Thirty day refund, no questions and no forms. If the first three chapters do not change how you think about your career, email me and I will send the money back.
Free. Enter a salary and a location and it shows you what the offer is actually worth after the exclusion, the domicile, and the covered expenses. No purchase, no upsell.
No. Chapter 2 covers both routes in detail. The military is the path 60% of people take while the normal civilian route is the other 40%.
No, and I am emphatic about this. Cleared technology jobs exist in all fifty states, and the average cleared professional at home earns roughly double the national median. Chapter 8 is written entirely for people who want the domestic version. Overseas is an accelerator, not a requirement.
It is written for you. Security+ requires no prior technical experience and is designed to be someone's first certification. The guide starts from zero and includes the free study resources I would use if I were starting today.
Chapter 13 is a case study of exactly that person. He studied after the kids went to bed, took a help desk job for 6 months, upskilled, and had his house paid off four years later. Clearance eligibility does not consider age.
The resume, and it is not close. Most people in this industry are qualified and write a document that buries it. Chapter 6 contains a complete cleared IT resume, scrubbed of identifying detail, with an explanation of why every section sits where it does, how to describe work you cannot talk about, and the exact bullet formula that makes a hiring manager stop scrolling. I have watched people rewrite one page using that structure and get callbacks within a week on jobs that ignored them a month earlier.
The average cleared professional earns $126,125. Top Secret with SCI access averages $131,907, and adding a full scope polygraph takes it to $149,875. Overseas, entry level roles commonly start around $120,000 and senior positions in high demand locations reach $300,000 and beyond, with housing and food covered and most of the federal tax removed. Every one of those figures is cited in the guide.